Don't Dream It's Over
by Libbytheblackcat
Summary: A reaction to the end of 6.23 (so spoilers) based around the concept of fairytales. A bit different. I like to think it's in Beckett's head, ie. a coping mechanism, but doesn't necessarily read that way.


**An: I blame the early hours of the morning, lack of sleep, thesis related stress and re-watching all of Castle from the start, chronologically, while marking 1st year assignments for the_ whole_ semester, culminating in a session starting with '6.17 - in the belly of the beast' through to the finale, oh, and my mum's Grade 9 English class, for this. I also learned that listening to Crowded House to get to sleep in the afore mentioned sleep deprived, emotionally delicate state is probably not a good idea. **

**Disclaimer: Castle and all related characters, themes and ideas = not mine. Disney = not mine. Title and lyrics = not mine. Inherent insanity = probably mine. Sorry guys, stuff that's not mine, I'm just borrowing and you probably can't have it either, stuff that is mine you probably don't want anyway... **

**Okay, here we go.**

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_There is freedom within, there is freedom without.  
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup.  
There's a battle ahead, many battles are lost  
But you'll never see the end of the road while you're traveling with me._

Kate Beckett lived her life in a fairytale. Not the sugarcoated, singalong, Disney kind of fairytale that is more commonly associated with the term nowadays, a proper fairy tale. She could have been a very normal sort of person, had a normal job, a normal home, a normal family, but Kate Beckett was not, by any means, a normal person. She was, by all accounts, extraordinary, despite spending most of her time feeling anything but. Life seemed to throw her trial after trial. No sooner did she recover a smooth footing for herself, another hurdle would appear in her path. With each one she cleared–just barely–she wondered if the next would be the one at which she fell.

Throughout all of these trials she was the reluctant hero. The tasks of defeating dragons and overcoming improbable odds falling to her and her alone. The pressure sat heavily upon her. She was the flawed hero, still fighting her own demons of trials past even when others had seen them resolved. Sometimes, she would wonder how she had fallen into this role. Was it fate or unhappy coincidence? If her life was indeed governed by a fairytale, what was stopping her from becoming the princess instead? She was beautiful enough, she was graceful enough, she was intelligent enough.

Sometimes, she thinks maybe it's because she's tall. Who's ever heard of a tall princess? They're all a respectable head shorter than their prince, surely? Sometimes, she wishes she wasn't so tall. Then again she knows that's not really it. She's made the most of her life, facing the hurdles one after another, slaying the dragons, righting the wrongs, content to just be surviving.

Until one day Kate Beckett woke up to find she'd somehow gained the two most important things in life for a fairytale heroine: a plucky sidekick and a mortal enemy, almost overnight. Her life was suddenly so much more than it had been for so many years. She was no longer going through the motions, clearing one obstacle before moving steadfastly onto the next. She had a purpose and intent. She could almost taste the final complication and resolution of this particular tale approaching. Soon it would be the end. Soon she would be free.

It was slow and it was steady and at first she was completely unaware, but over time the story changed and her life didn't seem to be the story she'd thought perhaps it was. The parameters changed, priorities shifted, roles realigned and her sidekick became a partner, an equal. She could suddenly share the burden of the difficulties she faced as the hero. She was no longer quite so alone. She felt alive for the first time since childhood, if not completely free from her originally perceived fate.

She began to think that maybe she could afford to be the princess sometimes. Perhaps she didn't have to always be the hero. She could let somebody else keep an eye on the world for an hour, a day, a weekend even. The outcome wasn't really so grey or so bleak. She could even let herself rely on someone else to come to her rescue sometimes. Well, one particular someone else.

So, the partner became the lover too, and Kate Beckett got, for a time, the best of both worlds; to be both avenging hero and classic princess. It was almost a Disney-style fairytale after all. There were still battles and heartache and fear in the world but she was no longer waiting for the fall with trepidation. She had finally accepted that, even if she fell, he would always be waiting to catch her. In the same way, she would stand with him in his own fights against evil, unwavering.

For some time, all was well but, as with all fairytale heroes and heroines, there came a time to face her nemesis and face him she did. Then, as with all fairytale heroes, she stared down the great dragon and stuck him a mortal blow. It was not without personal loss but finally she felt her fairytale ending. For real this time. It was past time for her happy ending.

Kate Beckett was going to finally be the princess, marry her true love and live happily ever after, even if she didn't give up her hero-ways completely. It didn't matter that she was not a normal person, would never have a normal job, a normal home, a normal family. She had weathered the fairytale, overcome all the trials, hurdles and obstacles, and come out the other side. She had more than survived. She was extraordinary, she had an extraordinary job, an extraordinary family, an extraordinary life. She was going to go on living extraordinarily all the way through her happy ending.

Except, she had forgotten one thing, Kate Beckett's life was a fairytale; not the Disney version but a proper traditional fairytale. You can never be too careful in those kinds of fairytales, even in the happy endings. Actually, especially in happy endings. Dragons are very dangerous, very sly and very intelligent creatures. Heroes must always be on alert for subterfuge and deceit at the best and worst of times or it could cost them and others their lives. Not to mention, the unspoken rule of all good heroic stories: the plucky sidekick always dies.

It took barely a moment for Kate Beckett to stop believing in fairytales, Disney or otherwise. It may have felt like her entire life had been governed by the same rules, the same plan, the same fate as a fairytale but this, this made that very idea impossible. It couldn't be true because, if her life was a fairytale, this had felt so very much like the end of the story, happy or otherwise. As tears rolled down her cheeks and she felt her resolve, her very self, start to crumble from the inside out, knees buckling underneath her, she realised with terrifying finality, that believing in a magical, mystical, fairytale concept was her only hope.

She just damn well wouldn't let it end like this.

_Hey now, hey now  
Don't dream it's over  
Hey now, hey now  
When the world comes in  
They come, they come  
To build a wall between us  
We know that they won't win_

_Don't let them win..._

- Don't Dream It's Over, Crowded House

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**So, I find it very difficult to write for Castle, whatever I do their voices don't ever seem quite right! As a mild perfectionist, out of character-ness is a real problem for me while writing which must be fixed or I won't write at all. Does anyone else have that problem? I think it's because the characters each have such depth. I love them to bits but it makes getting the plot bunnies out of my head really difficult sometimes! **

**I'd like to know what you thought of this odd little piece. Here, I'll go first: 'It's different but I think I kind of like it.' Now your turn...**


End file.
